Spain's Data Protection Agency said there was evidence that Google was guilty of disproportionate use and storing private data for excessive periods, among other charges. Google insists it has not broken EU laws.

The Appeals Court has ordered the social media site to hand over its user information to France's Union of Jewish Students and four Human Rights bodies, saying that Twitter had not justified convincingly its reasons for withholding the names.

In 2009, France set up one of the strictest anti-piracy laws in the developed world, but it's beginning to look like the government may kill the law's supporting structure due to its failure to impact piracy.